Tamasha (2015)

When I was a teenager the most common opinion about Indian Film Industry was that it never tries anything new, never experiments, the characterization and dialogues were all clichés and you never needed an astrologer to predict the story. If by any chance somebody experimented it was usually called an ‘Art Movie’ which was generally a miserable portrayal of human suffering and a sure shot box office bomb. But the scenario changed now and Hindi film industry has start playing with new ideas and it works, most of the time.

Coming back to the movie in question; Tamasha must have been a tough movie to make for the director, what he didn’t realized was it was tougher to watch. It’s always nice to watch a different and thought provoking movie but the makers never realize the agony the viewers had to endure to accomplish his dream.

While watching the promos it was difficult to understand the story, it is no better when you watch the actual movie. The movie is about two individuals who meet and decide to do things differently than the old fashioned way, they never revel their background or the real self, they keep pretending to be the person they like, so far so good, then they decide that they will never meet again but of course as it if going to happen, they meet again and complications start.

To be honest the story is actually good, but the director falters in the execution, the first time hero and heroine meet is in Corsica, France. The location is actually nice but the director made it a point to show all the interiors and exteriors of the town as if we were watching a travel show instead of a movie. The first half drags to some extent so as to reach an appropriate interval, we think the movie is going to get pace now but again the director takes all the time in the world to again establish the new settings, add to it the incomprehensible soliloquies (taking to himself) uttered by Ranbeer Kapoor supposedly having some deeper meaning which frankly I couldn’t get, take you to the extent of leaving the theatre, add to it the fascination of director-actor duo’s to build an complex character like they did in Rockstar which is seriously irritating.

Make no mistake Imtiaz Ali is a tremendously talented and able director, some sequences of the film are genius like the scene where Ranbeer narrates a story to his family, but just to give the feel of theatre inside the movie became the waterloo of Imtiaz Ali.

The movie is more of a portrayal of Ranbeer Kapoor’s talent than an entertainment endeavour, watch it at your own risk.

Never compromise entertainment for the sake of art Mr. Director.

Rating **.